Just at work, I easily type several thousand words a day. That’s not even considering the countless texts, comments, or searches I make on my phone. The fact of the matter is that my fingers are glued to keyboards just as much as my eyes are to the screens attached to them.
If you’re an editor like I am or even just send more than a few emails a day, you need to use keyboard shortcuts. They’re special key combinations that can not only optimize your workflow, but also speed up processes like you’ve never even seen. Apple and Windows both have hundreds of keyboard shortcuts, and yes, the idea of memorizing all of them is intimidating. I’m not asking you to memorize each and every one — just the simple ones that are useful for the tasks you do every day.
The macOS keyboard shortcuts I’m about to share are new tricks simple enough for any old dog to learn. If you work on a computer each day in any capacity, here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts I use on my MacBook Pro every single day.
Fn + Delete
For forward delete
The only time I’ve ever used a Windows computer in lieu of a Mac was for a summer internship, and in those 10 short weeks, I fell in love with one particular button: the Del key in the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard. It allowed you to delete characters to the right of your cursor as opposed to the left (like normal), and it was completely invaluable for documents, emails, and every thing else that included typing.
It’s ridiculous that Macs don’t have a button for it. For years, I thought I was out of luck until I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that revealed a workaround: pressing fn + delete. Is it as convenient as Windows’ single-press solution? No. But is it better than interrupting my editing workflow by heading to the arrow keys or trackpad? Totally.
Command + Shift + 4 + space bar
To screenshot a single window
The whole-window screenshot command, Cmd + Shift + 3, is relatively well known. What’s less common knowledge is the ability to screenshot just the window you’re working in. To do this, press Command + Shift + 4 + space bar.
I find it particularly useful if you’re sharing screenshots with coworkers — they don’t need to see my vision board screensaver or my ever-changing Photos widgets showing a tailgate from 2019. Go Gamecocks, of course, but my boss is much more interested in seeing the 404-error page where my work task should be if we’re trying to troubleshoot.
Command + Shift + 5
To screen record
The Command + Shift shortcuts are on a roll so far. You don’t need any fancy third-party software to take a screen recording on your Mac — just hit Command + Shift + 5, choose your settings, and get to work. There’s even a countdown timer you can set to give yourself a buffer to begin.
Say you want to show a trainee exactly how to create a Pivot table in Excel, or even a little intricacy of your CMS that needs a little visual demonstration. A screen recording is much easier to follow than a series of screenshots, and much easier to upload to Slack or Teams without messing up the chronological order of steps.
Fn + Q
For a quick note window
I have 1,544 notes in my Notes app. It’s safe to say it’s my locked vault of ideas, and the closest thing to a digitized version of my biological brain. My hands can type almost as fast as my mind can race, and jotting down something quick in that app is likely the only way I’ll remember it for future reference. I needed to remove as many clicks as I could between me and that new note template, so I naturally needed a shortcut to get my there faster than my fingers could switch to the trackpad: fn + Q.
This shortcut immediately opens up a new, miniature Notes window. My jaw-dropping number of notes is largely due to this quick access, and that’s exactly how I remember the function: ‘Q’ for quick.
Command + up arrow (or down arrow)
Goes to the beginning (or end) of a document
If you typically find yourself deep in long documents, you know it’s a pain to scroll all the way back to the top or bottom. It’s no big deal if it’s only a few pages, but dozens or hundreds of pages will have you rolling your eyes and staring into space while you’re making the journey to the top or bottom. Luckily, there’s a shortcut for that too: Command + up arrow to get back to the very top, and Command + down arrow to get to the very bottom.
I typically do this for all articles longer than 800 words, but it’s a dream for proposals and other long documents.
Command + Shift + T
Open recently closed tabs
Whether you just closed a tab accidentally or have one in the back of your mind you need back, Command + Shift + T can get it back. Press it once to reopen your last closed tab, and keep pressing it to reopen all the ones chronologically before it until you find the one you’re looking for.
You might be the mayor of Tab City and have to close out a few dozen afterward, but it’s much faster than going into history and sifting through the tabs there.
Control + Command + Power button
Force a restart (without prompts to save)
Now, I don’t use this every single day — unless my Mac is acting up, which it was last week. When everything freezes up on me, and I know my overworked computer needs a bit of a forced reset (literally and figuratively), I break out this trick: Control + Command + Power button.
It forces your Mac to restart immediately without prompting you to save any unsaved documents like it normally would. It’s sort of a last case scenario for me, since I’m pretty paranoid about making sure all my work is preserved, but sometimes the executive decision has to be made.
